Over the course of my life, I like so many others, have developed an outlook on life and how I want to conduct my affairs throughout my existence on this plain. My philosophy is one that serves as the basis for everything I do.
I believe that upon our birth, we are, each of us, issued a bank account. The account consists of the number of days we will spend on this world. We can never make a deposit to the account, only withdrawals. Each day, indeed, each moment, of our lives is a withdrawal. It is, if you will, a check that each of will write. At the end of the day, at the end of my life, I want to look back with some measure of satisfaction that I have, for the most part, received the most for my money, that I didn't write many bad checks.
I work for a company that is founded upon, and bounded by this philosophy. At Design ForSite LLC, it is our fervent wish that each client can look back at the end of the day, and feel good about their check to us. I wish all companies, indeed, all persons, could adopt this philosophy. If that were to happen, what an even more wonderful world this could be.
San Jose web design firm Design ForSite can help you with designing and creating that effective website for you that won't bust your wallet. We take absolute pride in what we do and love talking to our customers! Engage your curiosity about us at http://www.designforsite.com/
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Spring into Color
Spring has finally arrived and, with it, lots of color abounds: vibrant orange poppies, luscious green grass, sunny yellow mums, and more (including allergenic pollen. Achoo!). And as you stare at Mother Nature's colorful creations you might be thinking about colors elsewhere...like perhaps in your website!
When you look at your online web presence, have you ever asked "why did I ever choose that color?" The colors we choose are often a combination of personal preference and the marketing and branding identity for our business, but many people don't realize that there's actually often a rationale behind certain colors in websites. And there's a name for it too -- color psychology.
Color psychology deals with the meaning behind various colors and the feelings they evoke. Many businesses take a strategic approach to their colors, like trying to figure out how to make us consumers feel like we're gonna make a lot of money with a particular service or how to super-size our fast food order.
If your website is not as vibrant or engaging as you'd like it to be, perhaps it's time to look at the color palette with which your website was painted. And here are some hints that can help you make your site more colorful:
Red -- A color that stimulates adrenalin, blood pressure and metabolism
Think about fire engines, wine, and even love (what color are roses and chocolate candy boxes?). If you ever wanted your website to catch attention, red is often a powerful choice. Perhaps this was the reasoning behind the red in branding websites by State Farm and CNN.
Orange -- Energy, creativity, happiness and activity
Orange is a great color for cooking. Think about the color of oranges (doesn't that make your mouth water?). Watch for this energetic, active color in websites like Yelp and Design ForSite.
Green: People often associate green with nature, growth, and freshness
Green is found in your local garden, park, and the veggie section in your local supermarket. And don't forget what's in your wallet! (Cha-ching!). Take a quick look at websites like Fidelity Investments and E-Trade and you'll find growing recurrences of green.
Blue: Intelligence, stability
Blue tends to be a calming, sedating color that has even been shown to decrease human appetite. Simply stop and stare at a clear blue sky or a deep blue ocean and you'll know what I mean. Blue is an obvious favorite of airline websites, cruise websites and even some health websites. Take a look at Jet Blue or Southwest Airlines or even Kaiser Permanente. And since big 'blue-chip' corporations may want to be portrayed as stable and full of purpose, blue is a perfect choice for IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Ameriprise Financial.
Yellow : This color portrays attention, happiness and energy
Roadblock signs, smiley faces, and yellow traffic lights (which to many drivers appears green). Perhaps this was the rationale behind the Human Rights Campaign's website and Yellowpages.com.
Purple -- The color of royalty and elegance
Regal clothing. Although dated, purple is still considered a royal color. Yahoo perhaps exudes this in its signature colors of purple and yellow.
White -- Innocence and purity
Simple examples include snow, clouds, bunny rabbits, Luke Skywalker, Gandolf the Great. Definitely a safe bet for web page backgrounds. And we didn't write the header "White -- Innocence and purity" in white for obvious reasons!
Black -- Elegant and luxurious
Limousines and tuxedos are good examples of black as are websites associated with these items. I remember once visiting a skin care website where the theme (in addition to purple) was black. I expected some definite royal luxurious care there (but I wouldn't have the green in my pocket!).
Ultimately, color is a personal preference (and even a cultural one for many people) and there is no exact correct color for a website. However, if you're at a loss for a starting color for your website or want to make some chromatic improvements, choosing your colors wisely like the vegetables you put on your plate can help a colorful, meaningful experience for both your site and your visitors.
Lee L. is passionate about the dream of true customer service. He is also the founder and CEO of Design ForSite, a San Jose web design firm specializing in websites and web consultations for small, medium and startup businesses that extols the dream of customer service, ethics, and a solid web product. Find out about our dream at www.designforsite.com.
When you look at your online web presence, have you ever asked "why did I ever choose that color?" The colors we choose are often a combination of personal preference and the marketing and branding identity for our business, but many people don't realize that there's actually often a rationale behind certain colors in websites. And there's a name for it too -- color psychology.
Color psychology deals with the meaning behind various colors and the feelings they evoke. Many businesses take a strategic approach to their colors, like trying to figure out how to make us consumers feel like we're gonna make a lot of money with a particular service or how to super-size our fast food order.
If your website is not as vibrant or engaging as you'd like it to be, perhaps it's time to look at the color palette with which your website was painted. And here are some hints that can help you make your site more colorful:
Red -- A color that stimulates adrenalin, blood pressure and metabolism
Think about fire engines, wine, and even love (what color are roses and chocolate candy boxes?). If you ever wanted your website to catch attention, red is often a powerful choice. Perhaps this was the reasoning behind the red in branding websites by State Farm and CNN.
Orange -- Energy, creativity, happiness and activity
Orange is a great color for cooking. Think about the color of oranges (doesn't that make your mouth water?). Watch for this energetic, active color in websites like Yelp and Design ForSite.
Green: People often associate green with nature, growth, and freshness
Green is found in your local garden, park, and the veggie section in your local supermarket. And don't forget what's in your wallet! (Cha-ching!). Take a quick look at websites like Fidelity Investments and E-Trade and you'll find growing recurrences of green.
Blue: Intelligence, stability
Blue tends to be a calming, sedating color that has even been shown to decrease human appetite. Simply stop and stare at a clear blue sky or a deep blue ocean and you'll know what I mean. Blue is an obvious favorite of airline websites, cruise websites and even some health websites. Take a look at Jet Blue or Southwest Airlines or even Kaiser Permanente. And since big 'blue-chip' corporations may want to be portrayed as stable and full of purpose, blue is a perfect choice for IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Ameriprise Financial.
Yellow : This color portrays attention, happiness and energy
Roadblock signs, smiley faces, and yellow traffic lights (which to many drivers appears green). Perhaps this was the rationale behind the Human Rights Campaign's website and Yellowpages.com.
Purple -- The color of royalty and elegance
Regal clothing. Although dated, purple is still considered a royal color. Yahoo perhaps exudes this in its signature colors of purple and yellow.
White -- Innocence and purity
Simple examples include snow, clouds, bunny rabbits, Luke Skywalker, Gandolf the Great. Definitely a safe bet for web page backgrounds. And we didn't write the header "White -- Innocence and purity" in white for obvious reasons!
Black -- Elegant and luxurious
Limousines and tuxedos are good examples of black as are websites associated with these items. I remember once visiting a skin care website where the theme (in addition to purple) was black. I expected some definite royal luxurious care there (but I wouldn't have the green in my pocket!).
Ultimately, color is a personal preference (and even a cultural one for many people) and there is no exact correct color for a website. However, if you're at a loss for a starting color for your website or want to make some chromatic improvements, choosing your colors wisely like the vegetables you put on your plate can help a colorful, meaningful experience for both your site and your visitors.
Lee L. is passionate about the dream of true customer service. He is also the founder and CEO of Design ForSite, a San Jose web design firm specializing in websites and web consultations for small, medium and startup businesses that extols the dream of customer service, ethics, and a solid web product. Find out about our dream at www.designforsite.com.
What Does It Cost?
In our lives, we are embedded with the notion that when we want something, we should buy it. A pair of jeans, a dress, a new car, whatever it is, just buy it. If you can, charge it, if you can pay cash, go for it. Rarely do we sit down, analyze the long term costs of the purchases we so eagerly make.
The same scenario generally holds true in the costs involved in marketing. We look at a well designed publication, see the attractive graphics of an ad, or look at a flashing banner ad on a website. We immediately transpose our business presence to that ad, in that publication or on that website. We see great things happening by using wonderfully clever designs to attract attention. We will spend hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars just to "put our name in lights."
What does it cost? I mean what does it really cost? If you are fortunate, you will get someone who will click on an internet ad and actually contact you. If you are really fortunate, the person will have more than a passing interest in your product and is not just "window shopping." On the publication side, the chances of a person or corporation actually running out to track down your product are fairly slim.
So why should you even bother to advertise in the mediums? The first thing that comes to my mind is brand recognition. It may not click today or tomorrow, but somewhere down the road, your logo or ad is going to surface when a prospective client is looking for a certain product or service. The more brand recognition you can achieve, the better your chances for pulling in future business.
The cost however, must not outweigh the benefit. You need to sit down and determine if a particular medium is going to give you a better return than another. You have to sit down and review not just the short term cash outlay, but the long term costs (i.e. hours put into the ad; initial and long term publishing cash outlays) verses the amount of actual net revenue the ad will generate.
I believe that ad costs should be directly in proportion with the amount of net revenue you need them to generate. I believe that ad costs can be supportive of long term income objectives but that real time income objectives will be better supported through an aggressive referral program. If you do good by your clients, they will do good by you - tenfold.
So don’t blindly sign up for ads in various publications or on any particular website. First sit down and internally debate the question: What does it cost?
Ken L. is Director of Business and Marketing at Design ForSite. He has over 3 decades of work experience in sales and management and has sold almost everything under the sun. He believes in putting the customer first (why do you think we hired him?) and loves to share his marketing expertise with others instead of selling it for a price.
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